


Trouble never looked so god damn fine

by DesertRainFrog



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Police, BAMF Tony Stark, Hurt Tony, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Injuries, Protective Steve Rogers, Tony Stark Feels
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-06
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-02-27 08:02:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 17,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18734941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertRainFrog/pseuds/DesertRainFrog
Summary: “Mister, if you would please put down the gun and tell me what happened here”, he answered, trying to stay calm. This was the most unusual situation he had ever encountered in the last 5 years of working for the NYPD.“Sunshine over there “ – another wave with the gun which made both Steve and the other guy flinch – “Tried to rob me. So we had a fast showdown with him shooting me and me taking his gun and then I told him to call the police, meaning you. So if you, please, could arrest him…my patience is wearing thin”No powers AU with police officer Steve Rogers and CEO Tony Stark who decides that Steve is going to become his new best friend (or more) after getting injured in a mugging incident.





	1. Steve

It had been a silent and thankfully pretty uneventful night in New York when the distress call had reached them. While Steve was driving the car, Bucky played with a fidget spinner propped on one finger of his artificial arm. Working night shift was Steves favorite. The slow driving in one of the police cars calmed him and he enjoyed the twinkling lights of the never sleeping city. When he finished his shift he would drive back to his apartment, go for a morning run then shower and would spend half of the day sleeping till work started again. 

„I get silent and nice - but it sure is a bit boring“, Bucky complained, giving the fidget spinner another push and the propeller started rotating again.

„Enjoy it, we don’t get those nights this often“, Steve answered with a soft smile. He knew that Bucky did like those nights as well, just them and the silent noise of the car engine. Sometimes they would stop at one of the dozen good pizza places he knew and enjoy some midnight pizza. 

The static noise coming from the radio unit of the car startled them both.

“Got a distress signal near your location” they heard the voice of their friend and colleague Natasha who was on radio duty that night, “gonna put it through!”

The radio unit started to hum with static again, then...

“Hi uh…am I talking to a police officer??”

“Yes Sir, you are speaking to Lieutenant Barnes” Bucky took over the radio unit.

“So uhm, I’m sitting here with a gentleman pointing a gun at me and he told me to call the police”

Wait…what? Steve grabbed the receiver from Bucky’s hands.

“Captain Rogers here, are you in intermediate danger?”

“I don’t know”, the voice sounded panicked and Steve heard some voice in the background.  
“He just tells me you should hurry up.”

“Okay, stay calm, we are on our way. Can you tell me your exact location?”

Seconds later they were on their way the lights on their car flashing. 

 

“What the fuck was that?”, Bucky asked him, “Who points a gun at someone and then tells them to call the police?”

“Language, Buck – and I’m guess were going to find out soon, were here”

Steve stopped the engine and grabbed a walkie talkie. The address the man had given him was in one of the smaller and unlit streets in Manhattan. The streets were pretty empty at this time of the night and he couldn’t see a soul around. Well, he would at least take a look.

“You’re staying here, I’m going to take a look at the situation”

“Be careful”

 

When he made his way around the corner of the narrow street he could see two figures sitting on the ground behind one of the containers - as well as the shine of a gun pointing at someone. 

“Hey, are you the police?”, one of the guys called. From his voice he wasn’t the one who called but rather the one holding the gun.

“Yes, my name is Captain Rogers, how may I assist you?”

With closing the distance between himself and the two guys he finally could see them in the dim light sponsored by a few lit windows. One of the guys was dressed in black clothes, wearing a ragged beard and looking somewhat scared about the gun pointed directly at him. The other was wearing a suit that looked like it cost more than Steve’s and Bucky’s combined monthly salary. He had dark hair that was styled back in some kind of disheveled look and flashed Steve a hundred-dollar smile.

“Good evening Captain, you would be of great help if you could arrest that thug over there”

Steve’s guts clenched when the man waved the gun in a somewhat careless manner. The other guy gave out a small whimper.

“Sir, as you might have noticed you are the one carrying a gun and I would advise you to put that one down.”

“Oh sweetie, I’m not gonna do that until you arrested my friend over here”, them man gave him another smile; this time a bit sharper than before. Steve looked at him confused, trying to process what the hell was happening here.

“Mister, if you would please put down the gun and tell me what happened here”, he answered, trying to stay calm. This was the most unusual situation he had even encountered in the last 5 years of working for the NYPD.

“Sunshine over there “ – another wave with the gun which made both Steve and the other guy flinch – “Tried to rob me. So we had a fast showdown with him shooting me and me taking his gun and then I told him to call the police, meaning you. So if you, please, could arrest him…my patience is wearing thin”

On second look he actually saw one of the sleeves of suit-guy glinting in the dim light – probably blood. Focusing on it he could also smell the iron tint in the air. Shoot…

“Okay, okay”, Steve took out his handcuffs, crunching down next to ex-thug. The man offered him his hands without a question while still having his eyes fixed on the gun. As soon as he had the man in custody he heard a clatter and saw that the gun falling to the ground. 

“Thank you, officer”, the other guy smiled, lowering his shaking hand that had been holding the gun. Then Steve saw his eyes swim out of focus and turn back into his head. He jumped forward, trying to catch the unconscious man and felt some sticky and hot liquid soaking his fingers. How long exactly had suit-guy been sitting here, bleeding while pointing a gun at the thief? The blonde gave the thug a long glance then pulled out the walkie talkie.

 

“Bucky, I might need some assistance…and call an ambulance!”


	2. Tony

Tony didn’t know what situation he had gotten himself into. Yes, he was aware that he was a billionaire and probably shouldn’t be walking around in the dark streets of Manhattan in the middle of the night. But due to some self defense training he figured he’d be alright. Hell, people had tried to rob him several times and he got out by either talking or kicking the gun out of their hand. His self defense instructor had been hesitant when he first asked him on ‘that kind of lessons’ but well, he simply refused to give his money to some punks who thought to earn it by simply pointing a gun at him.

So this was a first.

He had encounter gun-guy on his way back from a gala he had hosted. Sure he had gone off trail just to wander around the quiet city for a bit, letting the cold air help him to cool his temper. But that didn’t mean he was free for robbing. 

Tony hated galas where every single woman tried to impress him by the size of their cleavage. Those days were over for him. And after stopping to drink alcohol a few years back, there wasn’t even a way to make events like this more bearable. 

He had been lost in thoughts on one of his newer projects, so when someone had pulled him into a dark alleyway, he had taken a short look at his attacker and decided that the guy wasn’t even worth his time. Like, he had stuff to do.

“Hand over your money!”, the thug demanded and Tony had noticed the small but distinct shake of his hand as he pointed a gun at him. Probably was his first time robbing someone, Tony wasn’t even sure if that guy knew how to use a gun.

“Put the gun away and get lost”, he sighed, “don’t wanna hurt you, you know. Also you can do better, I have only like 50 dollars on me.” 

“Don’t make me use force. I’m the one in charge, hand over the money”, the attacker squeaked.   
Great, Tony was dealing with a total amateur. He took a step forward. And lunged for the gun.

This were it all went down.

Suddenly Tony heard a loud bang, making his ears ring and he felt his shoulder and arm being engulfed in pain he couldn’t really process. What he could process, tho, was that both he and thug-guy were lying on the ground and he was clutching the gun in his right hand. Which he couldn’t feel anymore.

Great.  
The fucker hat shot him!

At least he had managed to obtain the revolver. Tony tried to stand up only to notice black spots form in front of his vision. So he let himself fall against the wall, sliding back down into a sitting position. He quickly changed the gun into his working, left hand and raised it.

“Please don’t shoot me”, his attacker cried looking at the barrel pointed at him.

“Alright, sweet cheeks, you are going to take the mobile from my right pocket and call the police”, Tony pressed out through gritted teeth. Normally he would have his security dealing with incidents like this, but the guy had shot him and Tony would make sure he would go to jail. Even if that meant calling the police.

Trembling fingers searched his pockets and finally pulled out his Stark phone. This was one of the moments Tony was actually thankful that laws had forced him to build phones with an emergency dial even if locked.

“Come on…”, he mumbled watching the thief fumbling with his phone. He could feel his right sleeve getting wetter by the minute and the ringing in his ears wouldn’t cease. Through cotton he could hear the guy talking to someone on the phone.

“Finished?”, Tony asked, waving the gun in his hand. This made the other man flinch and stare at him like a deer caught in headlights.

“They should be here any minute. Please don’t shoot me!”

After what seemed like an eternity Tony could see blue lights flashing and he sighed. Finally. He wasn’t really sure for how long he could hold up the illusion of him being in charge anymore.

“Hey, are you the police?”, he called when he finally heard footsteps approaching. They were heavy but cautious.

“Yes, my name is Captain Rogers, how may I assist you?”

And then there was a police officer approaching and Tony had never thought he would, but right now he could cry. But he still had a reputation to keep so he just clenched his teeth.

“Good evening Captain, you would be of great help if you could arrest that thug over there”

He waved the gun towards thug-guy who gave out a small whimper.

“Sir, as you might have noticed you are the one carrying a gun and I would advise you to put that one down.”

Wait no, he couldn’t be serious. Couldn’t he see that Tony was the one in pain? And he was sympathizing with thug-guy? That was low.

“Oh sweetie, I’m not gonna do that until you arrested my friend over here”, he told the officer. Who was as hot as he was useless. Couldn’t he hurry? 

“Mister, if you would please put down the gun and tell me what happened here”, police hottie told him. Tony gritted his teeth, alright, he could do slow explanations for dumb officers.

“Sunshine over there “ – another wave with the gun which made both the officer and thug- guy flinch – “Tried to rob me. So we had a fast showdown with him shooting me and me taking his gun and then I told him to call the police, meaning you. So, if you, please, could arrest him…my patience is wearing thin”

Looking at the officer he could see him think, then he seemed to finally notice Tony’s injury and took action, cuffing the thug. The engineers cramped fingers loosened, and he let the gun fall to the ground the ringing in his ears getting stronger by the second.

“Thank you, officer”, he managed to slur and felt the world closing in on his. The last thing he saw was the panicked look on the face of hot officer. Then he let darkness wash over him.  
_________________

He woke to the steady beeping of a heart monitor and needed a few seconds to process where he was and what had happened.   
He had been shot and some gorgeous blonde beef boy had saved him. No, wait, he had saved himself and blondie had assisted him. That sounded better. Badass Tony Stark, attacking his attacker and managing to solve the situation. Well except for…getting shot. He slowly tried to flex the fingers in his right hand, only resulting in excruciating pain flaring up his arm and shoulder.

“Tony, you’re awake!”, he heard someone gasp. He opened an eye. Pepper. 

“Hi, Pep…”, he mumbled, his throat feeling raw, “getting shot sucks!”

“Oh Tony, don’t ever scare me like that again”, his friend sighed, and helped him to sit up by pushing some button on the side of the bed. Having opened his eyes Tony could see the dark circles under Peppers eyes as well as several IVs and other kinds of cables running into his arms. Probably painkillers and fluids. His shoulder was bandaged, and the pain was dull.

“Do you want something to drink?”, she asked him with a small smile. Tony gave a short nod and she helped him to a glass of water. The small sips were balsam for his sore throat.

“So…what happened - Well after I blacked out”, he asked his friend. Pepper let out a shaky breath.

“I don’t really know. I got a call stating that you got shot…in the shoulder..and that I’m your emergency contact.”, she told him with a sad smile. “It really when I saw you, you were so pale and cold. Oh Tony, you lost so much blood and were out for two days. I was so worried!”

“It’s fine..”, he managed to say, “as you can see I’m alright. M’sorry for you having to deal with this.”

The door opened and a person wearing white came in. Probably a doctor or a nurse. The guy was wearing glasses and a small smile. He seemed reasonably competent.

“So, you’re finally awake, Mr. Stark. My name is Dr. Banner”, he introduced himself. 

“Good...day”

Considering the light falling through the half closed blinds it was probably somewhat around 3 pm. But he didn’t know for how long he had slept. Tony raised his arm to shake the doctor’s hand and was met with pain again. Shoot, he totally forgot that basically anything with his right arm was a very bad idea.

“I hope you are feeling better. I’m sorry to inform you that your shoulder took quite a hit.”

“Shot”, Tony corrected him through clenched teeth. Banner moved to his side and fumbled with one of the IVs. A few seconds later Tony could feel the pain recede and gave him a small smile.

“Shot, yes, you’re right. The bullet damaged bone as well as tissue. We fixed you up in an emergency surgery right after you were admitted to the hospital and I’m happy to say that you’ll probably gain back full function, but you’ll need time and physical therapy.”

“How long…will it take?”, Tony asked. All that information was a bit too much to process right now. He knew that he wouldn’t simply walk out with a band aid but damn, he needed his right arm to function. He was an engineer, he needed both his hands! 

Tony could feel the panic rising in his throat making him unable to breathe. The monitor he was still attached to gave out loud beeping signals and the doctor started to look quite distressed.

“About…6 months at least”, Banner informed him. And Tony let darkness wash over him once again; not wanting to deal with this fact right now.  
_______________________

When he woke the next time, it was Rhodey sitting next to his bed. He was wearing his military uniform and clutching his had in one of his hands. Seeing Tony open his eyes he smiled.

“Welcome back, Tones”, he greeted him, “feeling better?”

“No”, Tony sighed, “I feel like shit and I can’t use my arm for the next months, Rhodey, MONTHS”   
He had shouted the last part and saw his friend flinch. Yes, Rhodey was aware of how much that meant to Tony and it wasn’t like he could do anything. Tony could se his friend exhale but then the soft expression in his eyes went away, replaced by something harder. Great, Tony knew what was about to come.

“I know...I’m sorry. But that was damn stupid! Why do you try to fight someone with a gun? Tony, you could have died! Gosh, you worried both Pepper and me. You’re too stubborn for your own good.”

“Leave me alone”, Tony mumble, turning his head to the side just to avoid seeing the hurt look in Rhodey’s eyes. He knew he had both worried him and Pepper and it pained him that he was the cause of that. After a few minutes of silence he felt a hand settle on his right leg.

“Look Tony, I’m getting deployed again. I’m sorry”, Rhodey told him in a pained voice. Tony simply nodded. He knew of Rhodey of military duty – hated it - but he wasn’t ready to let his friend go so soon.

“When?”

“Tomorrow.”

“For how long?”

“Six months…probably. Look, I’m really sorry.”

“Don’t be. By then I should at least be able to use both arms again. Right?”

He looked at Rhodey and tried to smile. He feared the recovery process and having to do it alone scared him more than he would admit. But he knew it wasn’t his friends fault.

“I’ll call you. Skype you..”, Rhodey told him, “That’s the least I can do.”

“Thank you”, Tony gave him a small nod feeling exhaustion wash over him again.

“I should go. Gonna stop by before I leave tomorrow.”

And he simply nodded and watched his friend leave the room, feeling a wave of loneliness and resignation wash over him.

Two days later and against doctor’s advice he discharged himself and left the building with a useless arm and a small bottle of painkillers.  
 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok I'm not sure how long this will be anymore. Planned on something short and the counter is at 6000 written words atm. But I keep changing stuff, so we'll see 8D   
> Thank you for the kind feedback which really motivates me <3


	3. Steve / Tony

_Tony_

His life, as Tony had decided, sucked big time now. He couldn’t sleep on his right side (which was his favourite) nor write down his notes, as he would have liked to. Showering was horrible and taking a bath out of question. Dressing himself even worse. He was wearing this weird sling that took him ages to put on in the morning with his upper arm strapped to his chest tightly. It even circled around his whole upper body so that he felt more like he was wearing a strait jacket than a bandage that was supposed to help him heal. The doctors even had told him that he should be thankful for the gun being of a small caliber and the guy not using only resulting in “little” damage.

Whatever that meant. From what Dr. Banner had told him his shoulder was a mess of torn tissue and metal holding together what was left of his bones. Getting shot hadn’t looked that bad in action movies but the real deal was – it really sucked. He basically had a hole of the size of a big marble in his shoulder.

“Ouch, Pepper, that hurts”, he exclaimed as his friend and assistant started dabbing at the now stitched up hole.

“Stop fidgeting so much, the doctors said to clean it at least every second day. You don’t want to get an infection, do you?”, the redhead answered and poured some more antiseptic on the wound. Tony shivered from the cold feeling. At least it didn’t burn as badly as he expected it to.

“No…”, he admitted, letting Pepper fix the bandages and help him into a shirt. He was already feeling lightheaded again from the pain. Would this ever stop to hurt?

“You know the police called me”, Pepper told him while putting the shoulder brace back on. She was way better at this than he was.

Damn brace, his new bane of existence. But the doctors had been very clear. If he wanted to recover fully, he wasn’t to use his arm at all for the next few weeks. And while that was totally inconvenient Tony was all but stupid and wouldn’t risk his chance on recovery on simply being annoyed by being disabled for a few weeks. Still meant it sucked and he was sorry for Pepper who had to deal with his bad mood.

“What do they want?”, he sighed. Right now he didn’t want to deal with anything; the least being some police officers asking stupid questions.

“I talked to Captain Rogers from the NYPD. He’s a nice young man and the one who found you, do you remember?”

How couldn’t he remember? Even though he wouldn’t admit it the guy had practically saved him. Well, after he saved himself, of course. And he could have been a bit faster. But - if you’re a beggar don’t be a chooser – he had at least done his job as well as (he wouldn’t admit that but from what Tony knew he had lost a LOT of blood) saved his life. All while looking like a human angel. Life was unfair sometimes.

“Yes, he’s the one who found us”, he answered. “What does he want?”

“He told me he just has to ask you a few questions for the protocol he is writing on the incident”, Pepper answered, “Come on, Tony, help this young man like he helped you.”

He sighed then gave his assistant and best friend a strained smile.

“Fine, tell him tomorrow, I’ll be there. Can’t do a lot else these days, can’t I?”

“Stop sulking and get some more rest”, the redhead told him, “The doctors recommended you’d at least stay in bed for the rest of the week.”

“Okay, mom”, Tony answered with a sharp nod. Both knew he wouldn’t go back to bed. Not when the only thing distracting him from the pain was working on stuff. Pepper sighed and turned to leave.

“Be happy I don’t force you to attend board meetings”, Pepper called over the shoulder then exited through the elevator leaving Tony to himself.

 

_Steve_

It wasn’t until 5 days later when they heard again from the “Manhattan-night-thug” incident as Bucky called it.

“Hey Stevie, you have mail”, he called waving a folder with a few papers in it. Office duty was the worst, but someone had to write reports about the stuff that happened on duty. Bucky stopped next to Steve’s desk and dropped the folder on it with a thud, several papers sliding out and falling to the floor. Steve sighed and started picking them up.

“Ah, I requested that…more details on the man who got shot. Hopefully gonna interview him soon so we can close this case”, Steve answered and started looking through the now unorganized papers with Bucky peaking over his shoulder.

“Well he was kinda badass”, Bucks grinned then stopped reading.

“Wait, have you seen his name?”

“Tony Stark…what about it? I never heard that name.”

“What, are you still like stuck in the 18th century? Tony Stark is the head of Stark industries. Billionaire, playboy, involved in a lot of scandals, does tech and energy stuff, giant tower in the middle of Manhattan?? My mobile is a Stark-phone!” To prove his point Bucky pulled out his mobile phone sporting a sleek design.

Steve looked at his best friend who stared at him looking shocked. Well, Bucky knew he wasn’t really tech-affine so what? He shrugged and continued inspecting the paperwork.

“I guess I know which building your talking about. I talked to his personal assistant and she just send me a note inviting me over for the questioning tomorrow.”

“Good luck on that, I heard he isn’t a very pleasant person to deal with.”

“It’s gonna be fine, Buck, already had the experience and he didn’t seem that bad”, Steve laughed.

\---------

The next day he wasn’t so sure of that anymore. Standing in front of the giant “Stark-Tower” he once again checked the invite they sent him, hoping the security guys would believe him. There were like five of them posted in front of the main entrance.

“Uhm, hi”, he approached one of them, “I have an invite from Mr. Stark” He held up the paper with the scribbled note. The security guard took it, then started talking into his communication device.

“Mrs. Potts will be here in a minute”, he said with a gruff voice. Steve thanked him and put his hands in his pockets to stop himself from fidgeting. It wasn’t until a solid fifteen minutes later when a young woman with red hair dressed in a neat suit appeared at the front entrance.

“Are you Captain Rogers from the NYPD?”, she asked him and smiled.

“Yes, Ma’am”, he answered.

“Mr. Stark is ready to see you, if you’d please follow me!”

They made their way through the main entrance hall of the building swarming with a lot of people. Steve had to remind himself that even though this was a heavily secured building, people still worked here. Some of the stared at him when Mrs. Potts made her way through the crowd towards an elevator, so Steve gave them a friendly smile. When the door of the elevator closed behind them he could see the redhead’s shoulders slack. She turned around and gave him a shaky smile.

“I’m glad you managed to help Tony. He’s too reckless for his own good.”

She turned around again and typed in a code which somehow enabled her to press a button on the top row. Steve felt his stomach turn when the elevator shot up at an unusual speed.

“Reckless it was, but brave as well. I was happy to assist.”

The redhead gave him a sharp nod and the elevator stopped. Steve followed her into some kind of private suite. Looking around Steve noticed the fantastic view through the glass panels that made up the wall. Stark sure knew how to live luxurious. He saw some couches in front of a giant TV as well as a very nicely equipped kitchen that looked like it had never been touched. 

“Tony, I’m here with Captain Rogers from the NYPD”, Mrs. Potts called and Steve heard footsteps approaching.

Only minutes later he found himself face to face with the man from a few nights ago. The first thing he noticed was that Stark was incredibly handsome with his perfectly styled hair and goatee…but smaller than he had expected. He might be a half a foot smaller than Steve himself. Stark was wearing a very expensive looking suit (this one not ruined) and a sun glasses. His right arm was in a sling, fixing it to his body. Steve felt himself stare and quickly turned his gaze away.

“Captain Rogers, I’m so happy to see you”, Stark approached him and patted him on his arm.   
“So I heard you have to write a nice little report about our special meeting. Let’s just sit down and I’m all yours!”

He dismissed his personal assistant with a wave of the left hand and made his way over to the couch. Steve gave a small wave to Mrs. Potts who was already on her way back to the elevator, then followed Stark. The billionaire had propped himself on one of the leather couches, the sunglasses now resting on a couch table made of glass, looking at Steve from beautiful brown eyes. Following Starks orders he sat down at the opposing couch and took out his notebook.

“Wow, didn’t know you were such an eye candy. But blame it on me, I wasn’t really able to appreciate it that night.”

Steve felt his face heat up as Stark continued to smile at him. He cleared his throat.

“Mr. Stark, I’m Captain Rogers from the NYPD, here to ask you a few questions about the incident occurring on the evening of the 5th May”, he started.

“Haven’t I already told you everything? He tried to mug me, I went for his gun, he shot me, I had the gun, I forced him to call you.” 

“Uhm…more detail would be appreciated”, Steve muttered while scribbling down what Stark just said. The billionaire gave him a small (annoyed) sigh.

“Okay…Captain. So, I was on my way home from a really nice party – I sometimes enjoy walking home - when that gentleman approached me. With his fucking gun. Asking me to hand over my wallet. As a matter of fact, I don’t do that. Most guys don’t have the guts to pull the trigger. So I told him no, fuckface asked again, I went for his gun and that asshole actually shot me. But I got the gun, so I sat down, standing wasn’t really an option - Have you been shot, hurts like hell! - Since I was holding the gun in my hand and the other one was now useless, I told fuckface to call the police. That’s where you came in, so you know what happened next.”

While talking Stark gesticulated widely with his left hand, sometimes Steve saw him flinch, when he moved his right arm. Looking at Stark he also noticed that the man was sweating and his face was pretty pale.

“Mr. Stark, no offense, but you don’t look too well”

“I know. Getting shot does that to you. But, you know, I have...stuff to do. Couldn’t stand the hospital. Was that all or do you need any more answers?”

“You told me you were on your way back from a party. Were you drunk?”

“ **No!** Also what does that matter? I was _shot_.”

“I’m sorry, just have to follow the protocol”, Steve answered, continuing to write down Starks answers. “So aside from being in pain you were fully conscious when pointing a gun at a person?”

“What? That’s not the point here, officer.”. Stark threw up his arms. Or tried to do so, he gave out a small yelp and clutched his right shoulder, brows furrowed in pain.

“Sorry, sorry. It’s just…”

“..protocol, I know. Yes. I was conscious that time. You saw me pass out later. Not my best move when a cute guy approaches me. Are you finished? You can talk about the rest with my lawyers, ok?” Stark gave him a strained smile and Steve felt dismissed.

“Thank you for your time. “, the blonde stood up and stretched out his hand. Stark tried to raise his right hand, stopped in pain and clumsily shook his hand using the left.  
Wow, Steve mused, Bucky had said the guy was a genius, but Stark couldn’t even remember to not use his right arm. He sighed.

“Also, no offense, but you should go get some more rest. I was shot once and know that this isn’t a pleasant experience.”

He gave Stark a soft smile and saw the billionaire’s façade starting to crumble, revealing a hint of a stressed out and tired (and injured) man. Stark fixed that with another fake-smile.

“Good afternoon, Captain”, he said “Just let yourself out. Elevator’s over there.”

He turned around and left the room, leaving Steve to himself.

\----

“So, how was Stark?”, Bucky asked him when he entered their office. He was playing with the fidget spinner again not seeming to eager to finish the paperwork office duty meant.

“Interesting. Not as bad as you said, tho” Steve shrugged and placed the folder with his notes on his desk.

“Tell me more!” Bucky leaned back in his seat. “Is he as good looking as the pictures tell?”

“He is”, Steve grinned, “But he’s also pretty small., like a few inches smaller than I am. He’s charming but a bit impatient, guess that’s what you get from being the CEO of a giant company. Also he has a mouth nearly as bad as yours.”

“You like him! Also, my mouth isn’t that bad. Not everyone can be a language-saint as you are.”

“I don’t even know that guy! He isn’t that bad, but you can’t ‘like’ someone you don’t know”

“That wasn’t a question”, Bucky answered, grinning. “Stevie is crushing on a billionaire after rescuing him. Like, you are his knight in shining armor!”

“Buck, stop. I’ve seen him once, not gonna see him again. And that was all just work business. The case “Stark” will be closed once I finish writing this report.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for taking so long to post, might even take longer in the future since i'm currently changing positions at work (and I tend to writ in my break)  
> Big thanks to my twin who provided me with a bit of medical knowledge (I'm an engineer, I'm not proficient in medical stuff)


	4. Steve / Tony

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here goes nothing. I'm sorry that writing this took me so long. Right now I'm kinda stuck in a writers block but since this chapter is finished I'll share it with you. Might abandon this fic some time tho :/

_Tony_

“Come on, Pep, you can’t leave me like this!”, Tony pleaded knowing he sounded pathetic.

“Stop whining, it’s just for a week”, his assistant answered, “and since you’re in no condition to travel it is my job to cover for you. So hang in there, behave and you can always call your doctor, you know? Also if you need anything today just call me, I’m not leaving till this afternoon.”

Tony let out a small puff of air. Sure, Pepper was right, and he should be thankful for her helping to keep the company running smoothly. He just felt so useless right now. The painkiller kept fogging his mind, so he couldn’t think straight and without them it was even worse. But since working was the only thing that managed to distract him, painkillers were no option and he had stopped taking them. The drumming pain in his shoulder reminded him that he needed a new project – and fast.

“I’ll just go…to the workshop”, he answered, already distracted by the thoughts of possible projects. At least he could count on his engineer’s brain.

“Sure, just don’t do anything stupid. And no heavy lifting” 

Working with only one arm was awful. He couldn’t lift like anything; his notes were nearly unreadable hence his right hand being his writing hand and even when using tools his hands were shaking badly. The engineer had been working on a small device for holographic video-telephony and after writing the code the only thing left to do was to actually build it.   
Which proved itself pretty hard since he couldn’t stop his hands – ok his one good hand- from shaking. Hell, that one wasn’t even injured! Coffee wasn’t working either which was bad. Like, really bad. Normally a cup of hot steaming coffee would steady his hands and calm his mind, right now his thoughts were still running in circles and he kept flinching. As another pretty hard shiver wrecked his body and he nearly dropped the soldering iron, he decided that maybe he would need help, so he pulled out his phone.

“Pepper, honey, ma favorite, you’re not leaving till in like 2 hours, right?”

“I’m not helping you with lab work”

“But my best Pepper, I’ll buy you anything. Please, I just need to borrow your pretty hands for a few minutes.”

“Tony, no. Go bother someone else. Hey, you have a whole company of people working for you.”

“I don’t like them. I don’t want them in my lab!”

“Stop being childish, you shouldn’t be working anyways! Tony, please. You should give your body time to heal.”

Tony sighed and ended the call. Yes, maybe he was childish but had already lost too much of his precious time staying at the hospital. As the charming CEO he should probably throw a party, so people could see that he was still amazing and not bothered at all by getting injured, but truth was he didn’t want to be around people nor make money out of his misery. With Rhodey deployed and Pepper leaving soon, the list of people he could ask for help without them wanting profit or to gloat about Tony’s weakness was short. In numbers “zero”.

Unless… the guy from yesterday hadn’t been too bad. He seemed perfectly reasonable and Tony wouldn’t mind seeing him again. Knowing what to do, he googled the office phone number of the NYPD and pulled out his mobile.

 

_Steve_

The next day Steve was called into his bosses’ office.

“Come in, Rogers, and close the door”, Fury told him.

“Is everything alright? As I recall I turned in all the paperwork on time”, Steve answered, looking confused.

“No, your paper work is fine. Our department just got a donation from Stark industries under one condition – I am to send you over to the Stark tower”, Fury raised an eyebrow. “Can you explain this to me?”

Steve stopped raising one eyebrow. Had he done something wrong? While Stark had been somewhat irritating, he didn’t seem to be a bad man. So what would he want?

“No, not really. The Stark case is closed already”

“Hmm, well I guess you should visit Stark and find out. Before we accept this donation, I want to make sure nothing illegal is going on here. You know the compliance rules, officer?”

Steve nodded. He didn’t really know what this was about but to be honest, he was curious too. Also seeing the other man wasn’t the worst that could have happened today.

“Well then go, find out and send Mr. Stark our best wishes on his recovery. I’ll let you take the rest of the day off” Fury sighed and dismissed him.

 

Half an hour later Steve was standing in front of Stark tower again; again waiting for Stark’s PA to fetch him. He felt like a dog. Bucky once had told him that Steve was like a golden retriever – happy to serve without complaining - and right now he sure felt this way. Finally, Mrs. Potts appeared in the entrance.

“A pleasure seeing you again, Captain”, she told him, “follow me, Mr. Stark is in his lab.”

That was interesting, he remembered spending quite some time in bed after being hit by a bullet, but Stark was an adult man and sure had his reasons for already working again. Well, running a million-dollar company sure was a good reason.

This time they took the elevator (again, pin coded) to the basement. Huge glass panels divided the workshop from the entrance and Steve could see Starks form hunched over a work bench. The workshop itself was full of different types of heavy machines, workbenches and tons of scrap material. And Steve had never seen that huge amounts of…well... junk lying around anywhere. Mrs. Potts entered a code and the glass doors opened letting them inside.

“Tony, I brought Captain Rogers, as you requested. I’ll be leaving now, but you can always call me if you need anything.”

Tony jumped to his feet and walked over to them with a bright smile. He was wearing only a tank top and flip flops. Steve cringed internally as he noticed his clothes, this was no proper safety equipment. The pushed-up safety goggles tangled in the brunette’s hair didn’t really make it any better. Well, at least his right arm was still stabilized by the brace and Steve could see white bandages peeking out underneath.

“You’re the best, Pep, Thanks! Safe trip. Captain, what a pleasure to see you again!”

Starks PA turned nodded with a soft smile, then turned around and left Steve alone with the billionaire. Steve raised one eyebrow as Stark patted him on the shoulder with his good hand.

“Sir, I was told by my boss you requested to see me. I must remind you that the NYPD isn’t comprisable even if you send us money.”

“Oh no worries, sweetheart, I just wanted to see you again”

Ok, this wasn’t a situation Steve was used to dealing with. He felt his face heat up under Starks beaming smile. The engineer sure was a blunt person.

“Mr. Stark, this isn’t really…”

“Also I need your help as dear Pepper has told me she’d never ever help me in the lab again. There were a few accidents but I promise you everything is safe.”

Steve gulped. Okay, Stark was a lot to handle with him being a billionaire and one of the most influential people Steve met in his life and he didn’t know if this was still content with the compliance rule, but he felt his resistance crumble under Starks smile.

“Please??” Puppy eyes were a really unfair weapon and Steve had to admit that the smaller one was proficient in using those. He couldn’t help but notice that Stark’s eyes were, in fact, of a beautiful dark brown color framed by dark lashes.

“Uh, okay, what can I help you with?”

“As you might know I’m currently…lefthanded”, Stark pointed on the prominent brace restraining his right arm, “and I am working on a prototype that needs someone able to use both hands for assembling. If you’d please follow me? Also, just call me Tony.”

Well, that didn’t sound too bad. Probably Steve only needed to lift something and if this meant spending a few more minutes with the brunette he wasn’t totally against it. As Bucky said, Stark wasn’t too hard on your eyes. 

So he simply nodded and followed Stark halfway through the lab (he couldn’t help to close his eyes every time Stark nearly stepped on something sharp, ugh, flip flops!) till they reached a work bench that was relatively clean. He could only see small metal parts and cables as well as a soldering iron. 

“I’m working on a portable holographic device; already coded and developed everything in theory - now I just need to build it. This is where I need your help”, Stark…Tony told him and pulled out a blueprint that looked more complicated than anything Steve had ever seen. “Of course, I’ll walk you right through every step. Nothing complicated.”

“Okay”, Steve answered. This was by far the most unusual job someone had ever asked him to do - but not the worst. He waited for the brunette to respond but Tony was staring at him, looking shocked. As soon as Steve met his eyes he looked away, Steve could make out a small blush tinting his ears.

“Everything alright?”

“Yeah, no worries. It’s just that…no one ever just says ‘Okay’ to me”, Stark mumbled. Well, that was strange, but based on the engineer’s reaction Steve had done something right.

“I’ve never done stuff like this, but you told me you’ll help me. So, let’s get started”, he smiled, “what should I do?”

Turned out that while being a genius, Stark was also amazingly good at explaining how things worked to normal people. His voice was warm and friendly and against Steve’s expectations he was patient in explaining what to do. While the captain was sitting in one of the chairs, Tony had sat down at the edge of the table and got up several times to get some spare parts or another cup of coffee. 

By following Starks instructions, the small device slowly started taking shape and when Steve looked at the clock he noticed that the last hours had flown by without him noticing. The conversation had mostly been professional like “what should I do with that part” or “now solder the cable to this point” and in the silence of the workshop Steve found the billionaire a lot less intimidating than the last time they met. In fact, Stark looked pretty exhausted by now even if he would probably never let Steve know.

“Are you alright? You look tired”, he asked. Stark flinched and put his smile-mask back on.

“Uh, yes, I could just use some more coffee. Want some too?” He got up and Steve couldn’t help but notice him sway. On a second glance he could see the engineer’s brows furrowed in pain. Thinking back, he hadn’t seen Tony take any painkillers and remembering his own bullet wound (which had just been a grazing shot) he should still be in a lot of pain.

“I’m good” he told the brunette and gave him a smile, “We could also take a break if you want to.” This proved to be the wrong answer as Stark’s face darkened in an instant.

“I don’t need a break”, Stark snapped at him, “I told you I’m fine. It’s only a minor injury and I’ll be better soon. No reason to pity me.”

Steve raised his hands in defense, it hadn’t been his goal to upset the engineer nor imply anything about Stark’s health. This wasn’t his decision to make and he was well aware. Still pondering what to answer his own body supported him and his stomach made a loud gurgling noise. Steve laughed as he saw Stark blushing a dark crimson on realizing that he might have over-reacted.

“Sorry, didn’t want to insult you, it’s just that I could use some food and you might feel the same way!”

“I’m sorry I already wasted so much of your time, Captain”, Stark sputtered, looking at the clock. “I tend to get carried away when working on stuff. Since you helped me a ton, I would love to invite you to some fancy restaurant.”

And Stark winked. Steve knew this was dangerous terrain, he had known the man for what…a week? With their first meeting being not pleasant and Stark being only half conscious that time. He shouldn’t spend so much time with someone so out of his league.

“I don’t think this is a good idea”, Steve answered and saw the brunettes face fall. This was for the best, he reminded himself. Just not to rush anything, also Bucky would be waiting for him “You know, I have food at home and I promised my roommate to cook today.”

“Alright” Stark nodded, all the professional, “Then let me walk you to the door. Don’t wanna waste more of your precious time, Captain Rogers.” 

He started walking towards the elevators taking the decision from Steve.

“What about you project? It still isn’t finished, is it”, Steve asked with a frown. This situation was spiraling out of his control much faster than he would have liked.

“I can probably finish it on my own”, Stark answered and pressed the button on the elevator they just had reached, the door opened and both got in.

“You know, I have the day off tomorrow and could come over again, if that would help.” Steve offered with a soft smile. He could see the billionaires face light up with excitement before Stark managed to hide the emotion behind his professional smile.

“Actually, I might take you up on that offer, captain”, he answered, “but only if you will go to dinner with me tomorrow.”

The elevator gave a small ping and the door opened, revealing the entrance hall. Stark lead the way into the now mostly empty room. A perfectly styled receptionist was smiling at him and Steve noticed how out of place Stark looked here with his oil smeared tank top and the sweatpants.

Okay, this was probably really stupid, but…

“I don’t have any plans tomorrow night, so let’s do it” Steve answered, “Also next time, please don’t call my boss. Here, I’ll give you my number, you can just text me; and it’s Steve by the way.” 

He grabbed a piece of paper from the receptionist and started scribbling down his number as well as his name, adding a small star behind it. Bucky would kill him, if he told him about this day. Stark looked at him with wide eyes as he handed him the piece of paper, then he smiled a genuine smile. 

“Alright, I appreciate your help, Captain…uhm...Steve. I’ll text you”, the brunette told him and Steve couldn’t help but grin at the sight of Tony Stark blushing.

“Then…see you tomorrow”, he told the engineer, “and go get some rest.”

_Tony_

Tony was in deep trouble, like, deeper that usually. He had only known the police officer for a week, met him two times (three if you counted their initial meeting, which Tony did not, he only counted meetings where he was conscious enough to flirt) and he already was crushing on this stranger he didn’t know anything about except that he was a police officer, an absolute pleasure to look at and kind. Well, he also knew that Rogers…Steve had a room mate and was good with his hands from what Tony observed while watching him work. His fingers were long as well as strong and his handshake had been firm but warm. Tony could still feel his finger tingling.  
-  
He shouldn’t be dreaming about the fingers of a stranger or what they could do. Only the thought made his face heat up. As soon as the captain had left the building, Tony tucked the small piece of paper into one pocket of his sweatpants and went back to his workshop. The pain in his arm was flaring up again and he needed something to distract him.


	5. Steve/Tony

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter or kinda half of one, decided to split this one since it turned out pretty long  
> i hope you like it :)

_Steve_

“Wait, Stark donated money to our department just to have you come over so you could...build some fickle engineering stuff for him?”, Bucky laughed. Both he and Steve were sitting at their small kitchen table eating scrambled eggs and some sausage for dinner. 

“You make it sound worse than it was”, Steve answered, “Stark…Tony is a skilled inventor and I was glad to help.” He felt his lips turning into a soft smile as he remembered working with the engineer. Tony sure was…something.

“Tony? Wait, you’re on first name base already?” 

Steve shrugged while his best friend continued to laugh. Even though this whole situation was more than embarrassing for him, he couldn’t help but smile about Bucky’s delight. He was used to the friendly banter since from their high school days on Bucky had tried to set him up for several dates (none of them successful though) The next moment his phone pinged and before Steve could have a look, Bucky dove for it, snatching it from Steve’s fingers.

“That’s an unknown number, sending you a text with some four digit code and saying _feel free to let yourself in any time_ Is this what I think it is?”

“We didn’t manage to finish today so I said I’d help him some more tomorrow and his entire building-access is code controlled” Steve explained. He plucked his phone from Bucky’s fingers and smiled when he added Stark as a contact.

_Thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow then._

“That’s not what I meant, you gave Stark your number? That is way more straight forward than what I expected from you, Stevie. My best friend, falling in love with the most wanted bachelor of Manhattan!”

“He seems pretty lonely and his PA left for the week, so I thought…ok, guess you caught me. He is cute and I wouldn’t mind to spend more time with him, get to know him better. Which is exactly what I’m doing tomorrow.”

Bucky tossed him his phone, then leaned forward and propped his head in his linked fingers looking a Steve with a small smirk and some expectation.

“Tell me all ‘bout your day then.”

_Tony_

Tony was bored. Some of the hours after Captain Rogers had left he had spent writing a new update for one of the Stark phones enabling a faster emergency-call option. Now he kept gazing over to the half finished project the captain had helped him with and finally pulled out the piece of paper the blonde had handed him. Steve’s handwriting was neat and Tony couldn’t help but smile at the small star scribbled next to the number. Pepper would so grill him for contacting the officer again (as well as sending him an all-access code) but he simply pulled out his phone, added “Cpt. Steve Rogers” as a contact and started typing (which, to be honest, was a bit clumsy, he was used to typing with both his hands, the phone being a bit too big to only use one).

Only a few minutes later his phone buzzed and showed him the reply Captain Rogers, Steve, had sent. He sent back an emoji and decided to work some more in an attempt to pass the time till Rogers came over. God, he hoped the man was an early bird so they could go back to working. Thinking of it…it wasn’t like he was a stalker but information on like anything was appealing to Tony so he googled his new friend (was he allowed to call him a friend?). 

Turned out the internet was an amazing place (not that he hadn’t known that) and after a few minutes of research he had found several articles as well as photos of Steve. Gosh, that man had been tiny as a child, even smaller than Tony himself, but had hit a nice growth spurt in high school. He learned that Steve had studied art at a community college funded by a football scholarship (He may had saved several of those football photos as soon as he saw them) and then moved on to a police academy graduating with honors. After that he found a few articles on the captain saving a cute stray dog from drowning, saving an athlete who passed out during the central park marathon and so on. All resulting in a few realizations:   
a) Steve Rogers was too good to be true  
b) at least too good for someone like Tony and  
c) he was already crushing hard on the guy. 

Shoot. He could deal with finding someone attractive, wanting to take him to bed. But Steve was different, a good but dangerous different.

After what seemed an eternity of the very best kind of research he felt his shoulder acting up again and leaned back in his chair, brows furrowed in pain, then decided to move on to a new project to distract him. This worked pretty well – bless work- till he had to stop since the ringing in his ears was becoming louder and his shoulder felt like it was on fire. Maybe not taking pain killers hadn’t been his best idea but with them he would have never been as productive. Also, he faintly remembered having to clean the wound and change the bandages every few days. This counted as a few days, right? Alright, he could just get it done and hopefully it would help him with the pain. He grabbed fresh bandages from one of the first aid kits in his workshop and made his way over to the small bathroom on this floor. Looking in the mirror he winced. His eyes were sporting dark circles and his goatee was slowly growing to long making it look smeared and unsharp. He really needed to shave! Simply taking off the brace had him whimpering from pain. Wasn’t this supposed to get better? When the sharpness of the pain faded he pulled off his tank top. The bandages stood out in a stark contrast to his tanned body. Slowly he started unwrapping those and couldn’t stop himself from gasping out in small, pathetic moans. God, he wished Pepper were here to help him. The last parts of the fabric were sticking to the wound and he ripped it off with a silent scream. Black spots were beginning to form in front of his vision and he closed his eyes fighting off the dizzy spell. When he had gathered enough strength to continue, he looked into the mirror - the wound didn’t look too bad, it was stitched closed, the skin was a bit orange from the antiseptic but otherwise it actually looked like it was healing. Raising a finger Tony prodded at the flesh.   
Huh, that wasn’t to bad. Then he touched the actual injury, first slowly, then a bit harsher - and cried out in pain. He was taking back every single one of his previous thoughts, this was awful and hurt like hell. Horrified he noticed that his eyes were swimming with tears. Stark men did not cry, damn it.   
He grabbed the new bandage and started to wrap the wound. Tony felt his fingers trembling and couldn’t stop himself from flinching every time the fabric so much as touched his shoulder. The mirror proved that his wrapping wasn’t nearly as neat as Pepper’s, but he just couldn’t do this again. With a sigh he put his tank top back on, then somehow managed to strap his shoulder and arm into the brace again without passing out. He counted this as success. His blood was pounding in his ears when he made his way back to the workshop and he had to stop several times to fight off the dark spots in his vision. 

Suddenly the old, crappy couch in one of the corners looked very inviting to him and it probably wouldn’t hurt to lay down for a bit. OK, it hurt, but he was to exhausted to do anything so he just closed his eyes.

When he woke again he didn’t know what time it was with no windows in his workshop, the neon light staying the same all day (and night) long. Tony still felt awful, his nap had been short, and he didn’t feel any better at all if not worse. Hopefully Steve would come soon to distract him from his self-pitying. When the engineer made his way over to the coffee machine he could feel his legs shaking. Maybe he really needed to lay everything down for a few days, but the thought alone made panic rise in his throat. No, work, work was the only thing distracting him enough to help him pass this awful time. He would heal in no time and Stark men didn’t hide from pain, they embraced it.

_Steve_

It was his day off but due to his routine Steve woke at 5 and went for a run. The sun was shining already and the day was going to be warm and beautiful. He might have taken a longer run than usual (passing Stark-tower had totally been a coincidence) because when he returned to their flat, Bucky was already sitting at the kitchen table, drinking coffee.

“Good morning”, Steve called as he went for the shower. Bucky only gave a grumble and stared at him through half lidded eyes. When Steve came back from the shower he at least looked a little bit more awake than a few minutes ago.

“Morning”, he muttered and continued watching videos on his smartphone. Steve helped himself to a bowl of cereal and sat down facing his best friend.

“Still not the morning person, are you, Buck?”, he asked with a soft smile. They had spent the last evening staying up late, talking and it sure had taken its poll. 

“I have parking duty today”, Bucky complained and took another long sip, “and it’s with Clint” He sighed. Steve couldn’t help but laugh about the look of pure misery Bucky sent him.

“You are in no position to ever question my love life again as long as you don’t manage to ask Clint out already”, he chuckled seeing Bucky’s ears turning a faint pink. Clint was a junior officer in their department and Bucky had been crushing on him from the first day on. After finishing his meal, Steve put his bowl in the dishwasher and grabbed his leather jacket.

“Enjoy your day with Stark”, Bucky called when he gave him a short wave.

“Enjoy traffic duty with Clint”, he shouted then pulled the door shut. 

Since the weather was incredibly nice he decided that walking to Stark tower would be swell even if it would take him nearly an hour. The stroll across Brooklyn bridge was especially nice this time of the day with the sun reflecting from the windows of the giant skyscrapers. He could already make out his destination that was part of the skyline standing proud against the warm blue sky. He simply loved New York. On his stroll across Brooklyn Bridge he stopped several times to take photos just to have a few references for painting. When he reached Stark tower the entrance area was already buzzing with people and it took a few minutes till he managed to get on an elevator. Punching in the code Tony had sent him he saw two buttons light up that were formerly deactivated, one for the workshop and one for Starks penthouse. He hoped the engineer had went to sleep after he left, so he pressed the penthouse button. The elevator shot up and shortly after the doors opened revealing the living room of Starks penthouse. Which was currently unoccupied.

“Uhm, Mr. Stark…Tony? This is Steve Rogers, are you here?”, he called as he stepped into the penthouse suite. The sun was shining through the huge glass panel windows tinting the room in a soft light and Steve could feel the faint breeze of the air con on his skin. No one answered his call. Alright, that meant the engineer might already be in his workshop again. Still Steve couldn’t help but be a bit curious about Tony’s living situation. He took a step forward. Ok, no, this was an invasion of privacy. Before he could change his mind and give in to the curiosity, he turned and stepped back into the elevator, this time pressing the workshop button.

It proved to be the right decision, through the workshop door he could see Tony sitting at one of the computers sipping from a cup. Judging from what he had consumed yesterday it was probably coffee. The engineer looked tired, his hair mussed and dark circles sitting under his eyes. He was wearing the same clothes as the day before.

“Good morning”, Steve called and the brunette turned around, flinching and nearly spilling his coffee. Tony’s eyes widened, and a smile formed on his face making him look younger and a lot less exhausted.

“Gosh, you startled me. Good morning Captain..Steve”, he answered and got up. “Thank you so much for coming! You were of great help yesterday.” 

“Then let’s get your prototype finished”, Steve smiled and made his way over to the workbench where they had been working the day before. Tony followed him and Steve could hear the faint slapping of his flip flops. God, someone really should tell the other about workshop safety. 

Like yesterday they fell into a routine of Tony telling him what to do and Steve executing it. 

“So, did you sleep well?”, Steve asked while soldering to wires together. 

“Ah, you know, I’m an insomniac but I managed to sleep for a few hours”, Tony answered, running his left hand through his hair. 

“You know, no offense, but resting is important for recovery”, Steve sighed. Tony gave him a small shrug but Steve could see his ears turn pink. That again looked quite cute and even if he didn’t approve the engineer’s workaholic lifestyle he sure could understand the need for distraction. With his mind wandering off he forgot about the hot soldering iron in his hands. He cursed, talking to Tony had distracted him enough to burn his fingers.

“Shoot, I’m sorry”, Tony called, grabbing his hand and looking at the blisters already forming on Steve’s finger.

“No, don’t be”, Steve answered, it isn’t that bad, I was just distracted for a moment.”

“I know how those burns sting. Let’s put your hand under water to cool it!”, Tony told him with a frown. He grabbed Steve’s hand and pulled him over to a small bathroom. Holding his hand under the cool water sure eased the burn and Steve took a glance at the brunette. Tony himself didn’t look to good, his face was pale with bright red cheeks and those dark circles Steve had noticed earlier. He was standing next to Steve with his eyes closed, swaying a bit.

“Tony, you alright?”, he asked worried. The engineer’s eyes snapped open again and he grabbed onto the sink to stabilize himself.

“Never been better. How is you hand feeling?”

“A lot better already. Let me just grab a band aid and I’m ready to work again”, Steve had spotted the first aid kit on the counter and wrapped a small plaster around the burnt finger. “see, nothing to worry about, let’s finish your device, I’ll make sure to not burn myself again.”

He made his way back to the workbench, Tony behind him, when it happened. He heard a small curse to see that Tony’s flip flop had gotten stuck between a few pieces of junk, the brunette trying to gain back his balance, arm flailing ineffectively, the crash inevitable. He tipped over and crashed into Steve with a cry sending both tumbling to the ground. Everything went quiet. 

“God, Tony, you alright?”, Steve asked and sat up. The other was lying on the floor next to him, trying to sit up but failing, soft moans escaping from his mouth. Then he slumped down to the ground again, his left hand clenching into a fist.

“Shit”, Tony screamed in agony, “Fuck.” Steve could hear his voice break, he saw the engineer’s form trembling and the moans were replaced by soft, wet sobs. Steve took a quick breath then kneeled down next to him.

“Tony, look at me. That’s good. I’m helping you to sit up okay? Can you tell me what hurts?”

The brunette looked at him, eyes clouded with pain, tears rolling down his way to red cheeks. Tony gave him a small nod.

“My shoulder”, he whispered, “fuuuck.”

Steve managed to pull him into a sitting position, avoiding the hurt shoulder at all costs. Tony’s form slumped against his torso and Steve had to wrap an arm around him to keep the smaller one from sliding to the floor again.

“I’m gonna call an ambulance, alright?”, he asked the other, “Have a doctor look at your shoulder.”

“God no, please”, Tony whimpered, “I hate hospitals.”

“Tony, you just fell on your broken shoulder, you really should get that checked out.”

“No”, Tony tried to push Steve away, trying to stand up but failing to even get one foot under him, his breath quickening. Steve froze, he knew the signs of an on-setting panic attack. 

“Alright, alright, no hospital then”

A bit of the tension left the brunettes body and he stopped struggling. His breathing had turned into sharp and fast gasps. His fingers clenching and unclenching with every single one of them, his body being wrecked by erratic fits of shivers. Steve cursed softly and grabbed Tony’s face, tilting up his chin so he was looking into the clouded eyes.

“Tony, slow down, breathe with me…come on, you can do this. Inhale. Exhale….”

Steve started rubbing circles onto his back while talking to the engineer in a soft voice. Tony closed his eyes and sucking in a shuddering breath, then another.

“You are doing great. Amazing. I know you’re in pain, but you will get better. Come on, slow breaths…”

After a few minutes Tony’s breathing slowed down and he opened his eyes to look at Steve. His skin was flecked with red spots, his cheeks as well as Steve’s t-shirt wet with tears, but at least he wasn’t hyperventilating anymore.

“Better?”, Steve asked with a soft voice as not to scare the other.

“Yeah…sorry”, Tony mumbled, voice still trembling, “I really hate hospitals. But I guess we could call my doctor…”

“Then we’ll do that. Do you think you can walk? Let’s get you upstairs”

Tony gave him a small nod and Steve got up, helping him to his feet. He pulled Tony’s arm across his shoulders when the brunette started swaying and the engineer leaned heavily on him for support. Steve frowned, this wasn’t working very well.

“Tony, I’m going to carry you. Is that alright?”

The billionaire nodded, his eyes were closed again. Steve slid his other hand under Tony’s knees and picked him up in a bridal carry. He made his way over to the elevator with Tony in his arms, punched in the code and pressed the penthouse button. After a silent and quick ride, they reached the penthouse and Steve carried him over to the couch. 

“I’m sorry”, Tony whispered.

“It’s alright. What’s the name of your doctor?”

“Dr. Banner”, Tony answered, he pulled out his phone, opened the contacts and gave it to Steve. 

“I’ll be back in a minute”, Steve told him.


	6. Steve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your kind comments and kudos! They make my day <3 Next chapter is up, I hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing :)

_Steve_

When he returned from the short phone call (turned out getting a doctor on the phone was a lot easier if you were a billionaire) Tony had his eyes closed and was shivering slightly. Wearing only a tank top, the aircon sure was pretty cold. Steve grabbed one of the blankets and draped it across the others small form.

“Dr. Banner will be here in a few minutes”, he told Tony who gave him a small smile, “try to sleep a little”.

Steve left Tony dozing on the couch and went over to the kitchen to make some tea. Using the house telephone, he called the security and informed them, that a doctor was coming and that they should send him up. When he returned Tony was breathing slowly, eyes closed again. He didn’t know if Tony was actually sleeping or simply half passed out from exhaustion, but at least he looked peaceful. He sat down next to him and absentmindedly started to run his fingers through the brown locks while waiting.

About half an hour later Steve got the call that Dr. Banner was on his way up. Only seconds later the elevator opened, revealing a short man with grey hair carrying a suitcase.

“Dr. Banner, I’m glad you could make it”, he approached the other man, “I’m Steve Rogers, I called you.”

“Weren’t you the police officer who found him a week ago?”, Banner asked with a raised eyebrow. Steve could feel his face heating up under the older man’s sharp eyes.

“Uh, yes. I kinda got to know Mr. Stark through that, I was helping him in the workshop when he fell on his shoulder. He’s on the couch, sleeping right now.”

“Naaah, I’m awake.”, Tony called from the couch. Both Steve and Banner turned around to see the billionaire slowly sitting up.

“Alright Mr. Stark let’s have a look at your arm”, Banner told him, making his way over to the couch.  
Taking one look at the engineer, the doctor opened his bag and pulled out a few things. Banner used a thermometer to check Tony’s temperature, sighed and moved on to inspecting the injury. Steve watched him help Tony out of the brace and his shirt, then unwrapping the crumpled bandage on his shoulder. He tried not to stare at the half naked man. Even when hurt Tony was still attractive for sure. 

“When was the last time you changed the bandages?”, he asked Tony with a frown.

“Last night.”

“Did you remember to disinfect the wound?”

Steve could see Tony’s face first turn white than red. The brunette lowered his gaze and started chewing on his lip.

“Uhm…no, it uh, looked good?”

“Okay, Mr. Stark, you clearly got an infection in your shoulder. I guess bacterial. That would also explain your fever and the pain. I need to clean the wound and we’ll put you on a broad antibiotics therapy. Before that let’s get down to my car, I have a portable x-ray machine with me and I want to make sure nothing was damaged when you fell. Can you help me with that, Mr. Rogers?”

Together they made their way down to the car/ambulance parked in the tower’s garage right next to what Steve guessed were a dozen expensive sports cars. Tony was able to walk again but he still leaned onto Steve for support. Knowing that the other was sporting a fever Steve now clearly noticed the heat radiating from Tony’s form. With Steve’s help Dr. Banner set up the portable x-ray to take new images of the engineer’s shoulder. 

“Seems like you were lucky”, the doctor told them looking at a few images. “The bone is still set as it should be and is starting to heal already.”

“Certainly doesn’t feel like healing”, Tony muttered.

“Mr. Stark, you were shot a week ago. You can’t expect your body to heal in a few days. Patience is the key as well as taking proper care of yourself.”, Banner answered with a sigh, “If you ask me, you should have stayed in hospital a lot longer. Or at least stayed in bed.”

“Well I would have loved to, but I have a company to run”, Tony snapped, having turned a bright crimson during the doctor’s lecture.

“And you have employees, who can certainly help you with that. You’re not as important as you think, trust me”, the doctor answered. 

Banner turned to the monitor of the x-ray, then called them over to take a look and showed the images. Steve could only stare at the shape of what, 5?, nails that held together the bone. God, he could understand why that hurt. Somehow the doctor had managed to shut Stark up, so Tony just nodded and let Steve help him back upstairs. 

“Mr. Stark, I’m going to clean your wound now. After that you should take some antibiotics as well as painkillers. Don’t look at me that way, they will help you to sleep.”

“I just don’t like that fuzzy feeling”, Tony complained. Dr. Banner ignored him and continued his lecture.

“Your bandages need to be changed daily now and I’m putting you on at least two more days of bed rest. Means no working, do you understand?” 

“I already rested a week”, the billionaire argued, “and you saw how bad I am at changing the bandages.”

“We already talked about your idea of “resting” and you are welcome to call a nurse if you need any help”, the doctor sighed.

“I can do it. Well, change the bandages and stuff, make sure he takes the medication…”, Steve said earning himself the full attention of both men. “I, uh, could come over after work. I helped a lot of injured people in the army so I know what I’m doing.”

“Alright, Mr. Stark, you can either have a nurse come over once a day or have Mr. Rogers help you. Your choice”, the doctor answered and shrugged. Tony was still staring at Steve, his face sporting a bright red blush. He shook his head and settled on a fake smile that could barely hide how exhausted he still was.

“I’ll take Steve”, he finally muttered, “Thanks. I’ll pay you, of course.”

“No need to”, he laughed feeling slightly embarrassed. As well as a bit of pity, did nothing ever do anything for the other without being paid? Sure, Tony’s behavior was a bit irritating most of the time, but he genuinely seemed to be a nice guy?

“I’ll show you how to treat everything”, Dr. Banner told him. “Do you have a bathroom where we can wash this wound?”

Over the course of the next half hour Banner cleaned the wound, telling Tony how lucky he was that it was just a minor infection. Then he showed Steve how to apply the bandages as well as the brace. He even looked at the small burn on Steve’s finger, applying a bit of salve and a new band aid. 

“Make sure he takes those”, he said as he gave Steve two bottles of antibiotics and painkillers, then turned around to Tony who was lying on the couch, wrapped in a blanket  
“Even if I’m repeating myself, you should really cut it short for a few days. I don’t want you out of bed till Friday, alright? Also, please schedule a checkup with my secretary next week, I can’t always just leave the hospital as soon as you call me.”

Tony just nodded with a pained smile. He had taken both antibiotics and painkillers and looked like he was half asleep already.

“Thank you so much for your help and time”, Steve told the doctor when they made their way over to the elevator. Banner clapped him on the shoulder.

“He is your problem now”, he just told the blonde, then he left the penthouse.

_________________

When Steve returned to the living area, Tony was sitting up again, giving him a crisp smile as to mask the pain he was still in. Steve shrugged and sat down in one of the armchairs facing the brunette. Looking outside he already saw the sun sinking. Time had passed quickly while they were working and with the following ruckus it was later than he had thought. Steve heard his stomach give a loud growl. Tony cleared his throat as if to say something, then looked down, kneading his hands, then started talking, his voice flat.

“As much as I looked forward to taking you out for an amazing dinner date…I’m sorry, but I guess I’m not really in the condition for that today.”

“You know”, Steve smiled, “our amazing dinner date doesn’t have to be at a restaurant. I’m pretty decent in the kitchen and I could cook something nice for us. You could use the time to rest and then we’ll have dinner just as planned.”  
Tony looked up and Steve could see that his ears had turned red. His eyes were wide and he looked a lot more lively than a few seconds ago.

“That sure sounds amazing. I just don’t want to waste..”

“Just get a bit of sleep, okay? I’ll wake you when dinner is ready”, Steve interrupted Tony’s rambling. 

“Can’t deny I’m feeling a little drowsy”, Tony muttered, “okay, but only if you let me take you out later.”

“Deal”, Steve answered. 

He left Tony on the couch, making his way over to the kitchen area. Looking through the cupboards he found everything better stacked, then he would have thought. Tony didn’t seem like someone who would really cook for himself. Deciding on a pasta dish, he started collecting the ingredients and went on to cooking. A loud snore from the couch told him that Tony was fast asleep. He smiled softly. While being a genius in science, taking care of himself clearly wasn’t the engineer’s strong suit. Waiting for the water for the pasta to start boiling, he pulled out his mobile to message Bucky.

_Spending the evening at Tony’s. How was parking duty with Clint?”_

_Don’t do anything stupid, punk. We spent 4 hours trying to rescue a kitten from a tree, then spent 3 hours in the hospital to get Clint’s foot checked out. It’s a sprain. Going out for drinks now._

_You finally managed to make a move???? I’m proud._

_Tbh Clint asked me. Gotta go_

_Don’t drink and drive!_

Steve couldn’t help but chuckle. He would have loved to be a witness of the two officers trying to rescue a kitten. And both Clint and Bucky finally were getting somewhere. Their colleague Natasha had a betting pool on them and Steve himself had participated in it, rumors said even their boss was in. Thank god no one was betting on his love life. (Or he thought so, knowing Natasha there might be a second pool. He just didn’t want to know)

After finishing the pasta, Steve went on to setting the table. He decided against wine, not knowing how alcohol would react with the medication Tony was taking. When he was finished with the preparations he went over to the couch, where Tony was snoring softly. His hair was a mess, but he looked peaceful and in a lot less pain than before. Steve pondered if he should wake him, when Tony stirred, saving him the decision.

“Wow, that really smells amazing”, was the first thing he said, then yawned and sat up. The blanket slipped to the floor in a heap.

“Dinner’s ready”, Steve told him while picking up the blanket, folding it and putting it back down on the couch. “How are you?”

“Honestly, a lot better”, Tony sighed, “I have to admit sleeping really helped.”

Steve smiled as he walked over to the table, Tony trailing behind him. The brunettes eyes widened taking in the sight of the set table.

“That looks really good.”, he exclaimed and sat down, “Pasta has always been one of my favorite dishes.”

“That’s good to hear”, Steve answered taking the seat opposite of the engineer. Under Tony’s watchful eyes he went on to fill their plates. Taking the first bite, Tony downright moaned.

“This is amazing. You should change jobs and become a cook!”

“I’m glad you like it”, Steve laughed, feeling his own face heat up under the sounds of satisfaction Tony was making while eating. After devouring the first bites the billionaire slowed down and looked at him with a smile.

“As I consider this a date, given the company and the amazing food, why don’t you tell me a bit about yourself, Captain Rogers”, Tony said, a lazy grin settling on his face. 

Steve shrugged. “Not so much to tell about myself. I’m a pretty boring person.”

“No way, come on, just a bit?”

“Well, I’m 29 years old and a captain at the NYPD. I’m living with my roommate Bucky, who’s also my best friend, we’ve known each other since we were kids. We both joined the army after school, I actually had to bribe some officers, since I was, uhm, a bit sickly.”

“Wait what? Your body is like the American dream”, Tony intervened. Steve couldn’t help but laugh, feeling a bit self-conscious. He scratched his head.

“I only bulked up in the army, late puberty or something. Buck was in my squad and we spent a few months in Afghanistan. Bucky got hurt and we both left the army, going on to the police academy. I graduated in…uh, what was it? 2013??”

“2012”

“Wait, did you google me?”

“I prefer to call it research. Hey, what can a man do, I had your name and I was curious. The internet is a great source of information”, Tony laughed, raising his hands, “didn’t you google, uhm, research me?”  
He took a long sip from the water glass next to his plate.

“You know, I’d rather get to know you myself. The internet isn’t a kind place”, he said with a smirk. Tony, who had still been drinking, started to choke on the water, his face turning a bright red. He started coughing. After a few seconds the brunette finally managed to suck in a breath and struggled to regain his composure.

“Uhm, yeah, well…the internet sure was kind to you, though”, he answered, the blush slowly fading from his face, “Mr. kitten-rescuer and local hero.”

“Tell me about yourself, Tony”, Steve smiled, taking another bite from the pasta.

Over the next hours Steve learned, that Tony was 36, had been CEO of Stark industries for 15 years after graduating from MIT with two doctorates at 21 and losing his parents in a car crash. His hobbies involved fixing stuff, coding stuff, building robots and drinking coffee. A few years after taking over Stark industries, he had turned the weapon manufacturer into one of the biggest tech-companies based on clean energy. Then they moved on to talking about movies, favorite places in New York, music and family. When Steve told Tony, that Bucky had a prosthetic arm, the engineer seemed super interested, pressing him to bring over his best friend some time, so he could have a look at the prothesis. While they were eating and talking the sun had went down and since they hadn’t bothered to turn on the lights, the only thing lighting the room were the twinkling lights of never-sleeping Manhattan. Noticing that Tony started yawning more and more by the minute, Steve decided that while he enjoyed the company, he should probably send the engineer to bed.

“Thank you for the nice evening”, he told Tony, carrying the plates over to the sink.

“Just leave them, I have cleaning personnel coming in the morning”, the engineer intervened, when Steve turned on the water to wash the plates.

“Alright”, Steve answered, and gave him a small smile. Tony was fiddling with the light switch and soon the room was illuminated by soft, dim light.

“Thank you for the amazing food and the great company”, the engineer told him as they were walking towards the elevator.

“It was my pleasure”, Steve answered, “take care of yourself and I’ll come over as soon as my shift is finished?”

“That would be amazing” Tony smiled, shaking his hand awkwardly with the left, then a look of determination crossed his face and he leaned forward, standing on his tiptoes and pressed a kiss to Steve’s cheek. 

“See you tomorrow, darling”, he called as he left Steve to let himself out. The blonde was shaking his head as he stepped into the elevator. He touched the tingling spot on his cheek and smiled. 

Things were starting to get quite interesting.


	7. Steve / Tony

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for keeping you waiting for so long. I just had a few very stressful weeks at work.  
> Also from next weekend on I'll be on vacation for two weeks :D Sadly that means no new chapters till I'm back.  
> but: this one turned out quite long, so I hope you enjoy <3  
> Big THANK YOU to everyone, who commented or left kudos <333 You make my day!

_Tony_  
When Tony woke up the next morning it was due to an unpleasant ache in his shoulder. It wasn’t like he wasn’t used to it by now, but as it seemed the painkillers were wearing off. To be honest, he had slept longer and better by far compared to the last week and, in fact, even compared to the weeks before the accident. Maybe he actually had needed some rest.  
The room was basked in soft light shining through the huge glass windows and Tony noticed that sometime in the night he had kicked the blanket out of the bed. With a look at the clock he sat up. Huh, he couldn’t remember the last time he last slept for more than 13 hours. That would also explain why his shoulder was hurting more by the minute. His fingers itched to do something productive, but considering the events of the last day (and the doctor’s orders) maybe spending the day in bed, pumped with painkillers, wasn’t the worst option. And Steve was coming over that night, so he had that going, which was nice.

God, the police officer was something else, something way to good for Tony to even consider taking for himself. But what could he say, he was a selfish man and Steve didn’t seem to be opposed to the idea of spending some time with Tony. Maybe even more. 

Taking a trip to the bathroom to take care of the morning necessity’s left him standing in front of the mirror, brushing his teeth while looking at his reflection. He ran a hand trough his hair, displeased about the greasy look. Also, his normally neatly trimmed goatee was growing into something ugly and unkept. He hated feeling filthy, but even the thought about taking off the brace to shower was painful. Sighing he took a few painkillers, deciding that he might try showering and shaving as soon as they kicked in. For now he would stay in bed, watch stupid shows and wait for the pain to recede.

When he woke again he had missed an entire morning of watching TV, since he clearly fell asleep again mere seconds after going back to bed. By now the pain was reduced to a faint unpleasantness, but his discomfort with his body had grown. After taking a few minutes to wake up, he once again made his way to the bathroom and clumsily wet his face, using his left hand. Water drops were running through the abomination that had once been his goatee and he grabbed both shaving cream and a razor from one of the cupboards. 

Shaving with your weak hand proved pretty difficult and half an hour later he tossed the razor into the tub with a strangled shout. God, he looked worse by now, with his entire face covered in a half-shaved beard with one or two faint cuts on his cheeks. His standard goatee was nowhere to be seen. Pepper, who had helped him shave after being released from the hospital, was half across the country and he didn’t want to show his face to Steve, when he looked like this. The blonde would probably flee the room or…something.  
\--------------  
Turned out he was wrong.

Steve was humming a soft tune while he shaved Tony with swift strokes of the razor. The engineer could feel his face burning with shame.  
When Steve had arrived in the tower, he had taken a short look at the mess that was Tony’s face and then, without any malicious attempt, he asked him, if he should help Tony shave. So now they were sitting in the bathroom, Tony at the edge of his tub, Steve kneeling in front of him.

As it turned out Steve was amazing at this and the soft touch of his fingers faintly guiding Tony’s head to turn in the right direction for shaving the sharp lines of his defined goatee, left his skin tingling with want.

“And finished”, Steve grinned and turned to the sink to wash the razor. He took one of the fluffy white towels Tony loved and handed it to him. Drying his face, Tony looked in the mirror and gave out a small, satisfied sound.

“Ahhh, that’s a lot better. Thank you, honey”, he sighed. Steve froze in his tracks and as Tony turned his head to look at the blonde, he saw a faint blush tainting Steve’s ears. As fast as he had reacted, Steve was back to normal again, taking the towel from Tony’s hands and smiled.

“You know, since we’re going to change your wrappings, you might as well take a shower or a bath before that.”, he told the brunette.

“Wait, do you mean I stink?”, Tony snapped back in a friendly manner.

“Well you keep running your hand through your hair and sighing dramatically, so it’s kind of obvious you want to shower.”, Steve answered with a warm laugh, “let me help you with undressing and you can clean up.”

Tony felt his own face heat up under that innocent comment implying losing his clothes. God, he sure was fucked. Looking at Steve the blonde merely smirked upon seeing Tony’s emotions displayed on his face. Normally the engineer wouldn’t have any problem to shoot back an even flirtier comment, but Steve somehow managed to shut down his brain.

“Uhm…alright, that would be great”, he finally managed to stutter, hating himself for that as soon as the words left his mouth. Thankfully Steve helped him out of the brace without further comments though the smirk never left his face.

“I’m gonna leave you to yourself”, he told Tony as soon as he had helped him take off both brace and shirt, “try to not get those bandages too wet and call me as soon as you’re finished, so we can change them.” Then he left the bathroom and Tony alone with his thoughts.

Tony tried to keep the bandages dry, but under the prospect of changing them anyway in the next minutes, he didn’t do a very good job. 

Steve also told him that, after Tony had walked into the living room wearing nothing but soft sweat pants. Both sat down at the edge of the couch and Steve grabbed the towel Tony presented him with, to take care of drying and re-wrapping the injury.

“Do you at least feel better?”, he asked with a sigh, as he started to dry Tony’s back. Tony hummed in agreement, closing his eyes as he lost himself in the pleasant feeling of Steve’s hands on his back. An unpleasant twinge made him flinch and brought him back to reality since Steve had started unwrapping his shoulder. 

“Ouch”, he complained, “can’t you be gentler? Invalid here, remember?”

“Stop whining”, Steve answered, “I’ll be done in a minute.”

True to his words he finished unwrapping, effectively dried and disinfected the wound and rewrapped it in a matter of a few minutes.

“Put on a shirt and then we’ll put the brace back on”, he told Tony.

“I’ll be back in a minute”, Tony told him and got up, “don’t run away.”

“Wait, I’ll get it for you, don’t move to much or you’ll pull your stitches”, Steve told him.

“Come on, I’m not an invalid..”, Tony sighed.

“uhm, you kind of _are_ , even said so yourself" Steve answered with a soft smile. Tony let out a long sigh but since Steve looked so eager to help, he just couldn’t bring himself to say no. 

“Second drawer on the left, get me one of the old band shirts.”

After getting a soft, worn out shirt for Tony and fixing the brace again as well as taking painkillers and all the other stupid pills, they found themselves on the couch with some hot chocolate (courtesy of Steve) and a movie playing. Only minutes in, Tony found himself drifting off.

He didn’t remember a lot after that, just a warm and fuzzy feeling and when he woke again, he was in his bed. It took him a few minutes to figure out how he had gotten there, but Steve had left a note at the night stand.

_You fell asleep on the couch, but I guessed you’d sleep better in a real bed. See you tomorrow. Steve_

Realizing that Steve must have carried him here, Tony felt his face heating up. God, he was well and truly fucked.

 

_Steve_

They quickly fell into a, if you could call it that way, _routine_ of daily visits. Once he finished work (thankfully no night shifts for him that week) he visited Tony, helped him with the injury and they watched movies afterwards. In the matter of a few days Tony looked a lot better than the first day Steve visited, the infection having healed and the last night of their weekly arrangement ended with Tony telling him, that Dr. Banner had allowed that he could go back to work…if he took it easy. 

With his personal assistant returning, he wouldn’t need Steve’s help anymore and the Captain didn’t know if he was very happy with that. Sure, Tony was a hand full and sometimes a real hassle to deal with – for a genius his sense of self preservation was disturbingly low – but Steve enjoyed his company a lot. So when Tony asked him to the promised dinner date, he said yes.  
_____________________

“Come on, you should just fuck already. I can’t stand your pining any more”, Buck whined. His head was laying on the kitchen table, his hair still a full bed head. Steve was standing at the stove, making some eggs and bacon for breakfast.

“Buck, I’ve only known him for a few weeks. And he’s still injured, I don’t want to mess with neither our friendship nor his shoulder. Also, as I might remind you, you’re still due to make a move on Clint.”

“Don’t talk about Clint, Clint is stupid.”, Bucky grumbled.

“You’re only saying that since he totally owned your ass last game night”, Steve answered with a knowing smile. Bucky was a sore loser and Clint had dominated last night’s round of Monopoly.

“You know what, you should invite your boyfriend to next game night”, Bucky told him, getting up from the table to make himself some coffee.

“That’s actually a really nice idea! You sure it won’t bother you? Or the rest?”, Steve asked, “Oh and also, he isn’t my boyfriend. I wish…”

“Then make him your boyfriend! From what I hear you’re both stupidly in love. But since I’m your best friend, I’ll gladly put up with an entire game night of Steve-pining. I bet it’ll be hilarious. But also, I got money on you getting laid before your birthday, so please…”

“Oh, shut up. You’ll like him. He’s nice..”

“And he has super warm chocolate brown eyes and the most fantastic ass you’ve ever seen. And he’s _so_ smart…”

“James.”

“Don’t _James_ me, punk. Just get your guy.”

Smiling, Steve pulled out his smartphone and started typing a message.

 

_Tony_

Spending time with Steve somehow became an important part of the following weeks. As soon as Dr. Banner allowed Tony to start working again, he did. He knew that Pepper still was carrying a lot of his workload, so Tony tried his best to actually go to meetings and meet the deadlines demanded by the board. During work he messaged Steve. When their schedules allowed it, they met and went out. This way Tony had gotten to know all kind of different museums in New York as Steve was interested in art and Tony enjoyed watching Steve fussing over old paintings. They also managed to discover a few nice places to eat and Tony could finally take Steve out for the once promised date. Overall it felt a lot like dating. But while Tony was 90% sure that Steve was also flirting with him, he didn’t dare to make a move on the police officer. This whole friendship thing was still quite new for him – as in Rhodey and Pepper had been the only ones to put up with his bullshit for so long – and he didn’t want to ruin it. 

Still, he was a bit surprised when he got the message

_Me and a few friends will have game night on friday. I’d be glad, if you’d join_

He’d never actually been to any game nights since, as Howard said, board games were not suitable for a Stark. But Steve had invited him and maybe his roommate would be there as well (after hearing about the metal arm Tony so wanted to see that one in person) and, well, he just enjoyed spending time with Steve.

 _I’d love to :)_  
\--------------

On Friday Steve sent him an address in Brooklyn – probably their apartment- and Tony got a little nervous. After finishing his appointment at Dr. Banners, he got Happy to pick him up and drive him there. When he had asked Steve if he should bring anything, the blonde hat told him ‘snacks’, so he stopped Happy at a confectionery. Probably macarons would be okay? Since he didn’t know how many people would be there, he bought the entire macaron display, better safe than sorry. Looking at the giant bag he might have gone a bit overboard…Outside the car the soft rain from todays afternoon had turned into a full downpour, when Happy stopped in front of a small alleyway.

“Sorry boss, but I can’t drive you the whole way to the apartment. The street is just too narrow”, Happy told him, “But you should wait till the rain has stopped…”

Looking at the clock Tony noticed that he was already running late.

“Ah, I’ll just walk the rest. No worries.”, he told Happy, grabbing his bag of ‘snacks’ and making a sprint for Steve’s apartment building. As it turned out even a small run for the apartment left him drenched. The fact that there was nowhere to hide from the rain after ringing the door bell made it worse. When Steve finally opened the door, Tony was soaked. Staring at the nice cashmere pullover that was now clinging to the billionaire in a very wet and unsexy way, Steve ushered him inside.

“I’m sorry, didn’t know it was raining that hard!”, the blonde cursed, “You look horribly wet, I’m so so sorry! Let’s get you cleaned up, you’re the first to arrive, even Bucky is late, and he lives here...”

“I brought snacks.”, Tony blurted out, not knowing how to deal with a very worried and mother henny Steve. 

“Put them on the kitchen table, we’ll first get you dry.” Steve told him and opened the door to a small but cozy looking apartment. They passed through the kitchen where Tony left the macaron bag on the table. In the bathroom Steve grabbed a towel and handed it to Tony.

“I’ll get you some dry clothes”, he told the engineer after helping Tony to both take off the brace and his soaked sweater.

“Thanks”, when Steve had left, Tony started undressing and drying himself. He heard a soft knock at the door.

“Clothes are lying outside”, Steve told him, and Tony heard him walking away. Opening the door, he found a pair of soft sweat pants and a blue and red sweater with a white star. Both were a bit too big on his lithe frame but at least dry and cozy – and smelled good. He couldn’t help but blush, knowing that this was Steve’s smell. After tossing his soaked clothes into the bathtub, he made his way to the kitchen. 

Steve was rummaging through the drawers, arranging snacks. Tony saw the macarons he brought arranged on two plates. He cleared his throat and Steve turned around. The blonde opened his mouth as if to say something but stopped and just stared at Tony, his cheeks turning a soft pink. Tony felt his own face mirroring Steve’s. 

“Uhm…better?”, Steve finally asked.

“A lot!”, Tony sighed and sat down, watching Steve going back to arranging everything for the night.

“So, why did you bring macarons?”, Steve asked him.

“Don’t you like them? I thought…that would be alright. I’m sorry, I was never really invited to…game night”

“No, I love them. Everyone will love them. It’s just…they are so expensive!”, Steve answered, “You really didn’t have to!”

“But you invited me”. The doorbell saved Tony from continuing this awkward conversation. Steve left the room and soon came back with four other people, a red-haired girl, and three guys. One of them was sporting a sleek metal arm, so that must be Bucky.

“Tony, those are my shitty roommate Bucky, who forgot his key, and my friends Natasha, Clint and Sam!”, Steve introduced them, “guys, that’s my friend Tony, who…wait, Tony, _where_ is your brace? You still do have a broken shoulder, you shouldn’t be running around like this” Tony was hit by a full Steve Rogers frown.

“Hi”, Tony greeted the others, then turned to Steve, “Stop worrying, I’m fine, Dr. Banner just told me I can take it off for a few hours each day. Really.”

“I’m Bucky, this punk’s roommate”, the shiny-metal-arm guy interrupted the discussion, saving Tony, “Man, that’s some shitty weather outside. ‘that why you’re wearing Stevie’s clothes? Steve, I thought you said no one ever gets to wear your favorite sweater!”

“Uhm, well, I was a bit soaked..”, Tony answered with a shy smile, his eyes fixed on the shiny arm. God, he’d love to take a closer look at that!

“OMG, who brought macarons? I’ll forever love you”, the blonde, Clint, exclaimed. 

Finishing their introductions, everyone sat down at the table and soon a huge pile of board games was standing in the middle. Steve was sitting next to Tony and even through the warm sweater – Steve’s favorite sweater!- he could feel the heat radiating from the blonde’s body.

“I vote Settlers”, Natasha told them, “Clint can’t cheat as much in that one.”

“Seconded”, Bucky exclaimed. The others agreed till every one’s eyes landed on Tony.

“I never really played board games”, he sighed, hating to admit it.

“Oh, I bet you’ll get the hang out of it pretty fast. Let me explain the rules…”, Steve leaned over and started explain how to harvest, build and deal. 

As it turned out Settlers was fun, easy and Tony completely dominated the game, his business skill coming in handy. He found himself enjoying it a lot, the games were fun, and Steve’s friends were friendly and outgoing though never boring, since they were bickering nonstop. The lot of snacks was slowly vanishing and after Tony won the first round Sam demanded a revanche. This round everyone teamed up on Tony but using his skills in bribing and blackmailing he still won. 

“I don’t know how you did that”, Clint told him afterwards, “but it was brilliant.”

Tony shrugged, a small smile forming on his face, “well, you all are just too nice and gullible”, he answered. He was met with loud protest.

Since Bucky and Clint both refused to play another round, they moved on to exploding kittens. Only then his shoulder decided to spoil his evening, hurting more by the second now. First, he tried to ignore it, but when he looked over at Steve he could see the other had noticed his discomfort as well.

“I’ll be back in a minute”, he blurted out, “just need to use the bathroom” 

Clutching his right arm at the wrist, he managed to take some of the weight off his shoulder. The brace was still lying where he tossed it, on top of his pile of wet clothes. Only seconds later the door to the bathroom opened again, revealing Steve.

“Do you need some help?”, the blonde asked him with a soft smile, “you look like you’re hurting.”

Tony ignored him, trying to put on the stupid brace himself – just that he wasn’t really good at it. Even after nearly four weeks after hurting his shoulder and wearing the brace.

“Yes, please”, he finally managed to blurt out and seconds later Steve, the professional Tony-helper, had helped him to fix the bane of his existence again. Not having the entire weight of his arm straining his shoulder anymore, the pain slowly started receding and Tony let out a small sigh.

“Better?”

He nodded and followed Steve back to the kitchen, where the others had just started another round of exploding kitten.

Tony never knew that simple board games could be that much fun and when the others started to leave he felt a pang of regret, that the evening had passed so fast. He had called Happy and was now waiting for him to pick him up.

“I’ll just…put on my clothes, thanks for lending me your stuff”, he told Steve, attempting to get up.

“Oh, just keep it and bring it back for game night next week. You’re coming, aren’t you?”

“If you want to lose again at settlers, sure”, Tony grinned, feeling a warmth spreading through his body. “But only if I can have a closer look at Bucky’s arm before totally crushing you again.”

“You’ve got yourself a deal, doll”, Bucky answers with a grin.

Some time later Tony was sitting in the car, still feeling warm and…loved. Huh.

**Author's Note:**

> Drowning in Endgame feels I kinda needed to write something...nice.  
> So this is what I think about while trying to work 8D  
> Sorry for mistakes, I'm not a native speaker but do try my best :)
> 
> Set the chapter counter to six which is probably it, but everything is still wip  
> Bis thanks to my twin who beta-ed me :)


End file.
